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Summary from Annual report 2008

The mission of Calla is to lend a helping hand to people to preserve an environment for life, contribute to the preservation of the valuable ecosystems in South Bohemia, and promote the expansion of renewable sources of energy through publicity and exemplary action.

Program for the supporting of sustainable energy systems

Our projects were focusing on alternative paths to the current conventional energy industry concept. Together with Hnutí DUHA at a workshop in Prague, we presented the potential for heat generation from renewable sources of energy, which became one of the cornerstones for NGO work on the energy strategy for the Czech Republic. We completed work on the new mapping of installations using renewable sources of energy in the region; see www.zdrojeenergie.cz or the CD-ROM. We managed the third year of the South Bohemian Day for Renewable Energy and a number of lectures on green energy for schools and the public in various regions. Our activities in this sphere included a field trip on the energy use of biomass titled Energy from the Fields. We ran the website www.zmenaklimatu.cz for the so-called Climate Coalition. In Lodhéřov in February, we organised a meeting of mayors and the public from the six sites threatened by the plans to build an underground spent nuclear fuel disposal site. We also submitted comments on the governmental Regional Development Policy in the same spirit. In addition, we published two issues of the newsletter NUCLEAR WASTE? NO THANKS. We opposed the Ministry of Industry’s efforts to ignore the need to amend the Atomic Act in a way that respects the rights of the public and abolishes the limited liability of operators for nuclear damage. We started co-operation with the citizens’ association Naše Podještědí, which is active in combating the uranium mining near Liberec. Jointly we organised several public events, including one in support of the global Uranium Action Day. We held the expert conference Uranium Mining in Context in Liberec in the autumn. We summarised the history, environmental impacts and the status quo of uranium mining in the Czech Republic in a brochure titled Uranium: Are we going to start mining it again?

Nature protection programe

Calla was involved in many planning procedures with potential environmental impacts in the last year, including territorial planning, land-use plan approvals, EIA and SEA processes, and procedures under Act no. 114/1992, such as tree-cutting procedures. In many cases, we managed to incorporate our comments in favour of the environment into the final decisions. We held the public expert seminar Public Participation in Administrative Procedures. Concerning environmental education, we published the brochure České Budějovice – My City – My Country, intended for first to third-graders, giving in a light yet educational form advice to children and parents alike on how to make a contribution to conserving the environment. We organised a workshop on nearby sand pits as part of a teachers’ conference in Vlašim. Calla was a co-presenter of the winning proposal for the Tree of the Year 2008: the Římov Linden, nearly 600 years old, the symbol of the famous Holy Spirit pilgrimage church and Loretto. As part of our running campaign to conserve the unique country of the Boletice military training area and the Green Thursdays, we held a successful lecture by Prof. Dr. Vít Grulich of Masaryk University in Brno. We developed a postcard appealing to the local government to oppose the plans to build a skiing resort at the Špičák, and negotiated with the Ministry of the Environment. Our activities in the sphere of post-mining land reclamation focused chiefly on promoting its environment-friendly forms. We compiled a scientific position paper, to which nearly 250 experts subscribed on our website. Moreover, we continued our awareness raising work among the expert and general public in the form of lectures, field trips, and a workshop. We published the highly popular brochure on the Bank Swallow, and dressed the wall of the Třebeč sand pit for bank swallows as we do every year. The specialised web site on sand pits, www.calla.cz/piskovny, was extended substantially.

Other public activities of CALLA

Environmental consultancy

Six hundred and sixty-four queries dealt with was last year’s performance of Calla’s Environmental Consultancy. We specialise on environmental protection law (Pavla Matějková), energy issues (Edvard Sequens), post-mining nature conservation (Jiří Řehounek), and agricultural alternatives (Hana Gabrielová), but we also advised on other issues. Calla is a member of the national STEP environmental consultancy network, in whose Board of Directors Edvard Sequens was involved. For more on the consultancy, see www.calla.cz/poradna.

Krasec
We contributed activities and work in the executive council to the functioning of the KRASEC, South Bohemia’s network of environmental centres. We continued to publish the KRASEC journal, give on-line consultations at www.krasec.cz and in the 14dní promotional periodical; we organised an exhibition in South Bohemian Scientific Library, and other events.

Green thursdays
Ten more popular education events were held last year on Green Thursdays, where we invite debaters to the Měsíc art gallery in České Budějovice together with Rosa. Calla organised Antonín Pelíšek’s author’s reading, a debate on the value of former peat bogs with Petra Konvalinková, one about factory farming with Martin Hyťha; Vít Grulich introduced the natural values of the Boletice area, and Lukáš Čížek spoke about the importance of old trees for rare insects.

ĎÁBLÍK
Twelve issues of the Ďáblík e-monthly were sent out: it disseminates information on our work and related environmental topics. All the issues are accessible from our websitde. For invitations to current events, and our offering of publications, lectures, exhibitions, and T-shirts, go to www.calla.cz.

 

Management report for 2008

Income in 2008:
	CZK	EUR
Membership fees	14,000	520
NROS general grant	1,030,600	38,270
Czech Environmental Partnership Foundation grant	561,500	20,850
Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands grant	105,000	3,899
Upper Austria Government grant	303,600	11,274
České Budějovice Municipality grant	64,800	2,406
Heinrich Böll Stiftung grant	25,000	928
Donations	84 000	3,119
Rental of office space	23,700	880
Principal activity	355,800	13,212
Interests from bank accounts	13,900	516
Income Total	2,582,100	95,882

Expenses in 2008:
	CZK	EUR
Salary costs (including social and health insurance)	1,166,500	43,316
Office supplies and minor spendings	75,500	2804
Expert literature, journals	7,000	260
Travel costs	40,700	1,511
Promotion and publicity	40,200	1,493
Rent fees	105,800	3,927
Energy supplies	32,300	1,199
Communications (telephone, internet, postage)	105,300	3,910
Network administration, office machine repairs and maintenance	39,500	1,467
Service purchases	888,500	32,993
Office and employer insurance	8,200	304
Membership fees in other organisations	5,000	185
Bank fees	5,900	219
Expenses Total	2,529,600	93,932

Profit for 2008

52,500

1,949

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